torgosan - Slashdot User

Comment Re:It's all slipping through their fingers (Score 1) 265

by torgosan on Saturday July 03, 2010 @07:36AM (#32784728) Attached to: IE9 Flaunts Hardware-Accelerated Canvas

Great posting but as an aside: if your buddy's box is taking THAT long to boot to a "usable" desktop ["usable" may have different meaning to each of us], there is something wrong with his box. Seriously.

Comment Re:Offtopic, I know (Score 1) 89

by torgosan on Tuesday June 22, 2010 @06:41AM (#32651080) Attached to: New Fossil Sheds Light On Lucy's Family Tree

And moderation is jacked as well, since yesterday. What used to be a simple process [choose the mod selection and it would be immediately applied] is now b0rked, choose the mod selectiopn and nothing happens, no update, no Apply button at the bottom of the page, nada.

VLC 1.1 Forced To Drop Shoutcast Due To AOL Anti-OSS Provision 315

Posted by Soulskill on Monday June 21, 2010 @04:18PM from the more-shouting-imminent dept.

The folks over at VideoLAN are in the process of releasing version 1.1.0 of VLC, and one of the major changes is the removal of SHOUTcast, a media-streaming module from AOL-owned Nullsoft. "During the last year, the VLC developers have received several injunctions by e-mail from employees at AOL, asking us to either comply to a license not compatible with free software or remove the SHOUTcast capability in VLC." Within the license is a clause prohibiting the distribution of SHOUTcast with any product whose own license requires that it be "disclosed or distributed in source code form," "licensed for the purpose of making derivative works," or "redistributable at no charge." The license would also force VideoLAN to bundle Nullsoft adware with VLC. Update: 06/22 00:52 GMT by H : The 1.1 release is ready from their site; you can also read up on the release information.

Submission + - Bluecherry releases it's MPEG-4 driver, GPL (bluecherrydvr.com)

Submitted by azop on Wednesday June 16, 2010 @09:47PM

azop writes: Today Bluecherry released its GPL licensed multi-input MPEG4 audio / video hardware compression driver. This driver supports 16 channel MPEG-4 encoders using the Video4Linux API, and up to 16 audio devices (using ALSA). More information about the driver and features can be found at Bluecherry's site (http://www.bluecherrydvr.com/2010/06/16/bluecherry-releases-its-version-2-driver-gpl/) and at Ben Collin's personal blog (http://ben-collins.blogspot.com/2010/06/softlogic-6010-4816-channel-mpeg-4.html).

Bluecherry is the first Linux software company to release a complete driver based on Linux kernel API's (Video4Linux and Alsa) under the GPL license for multiple input hardware compression (MPEG-4) capture cards. A H.264 version is 'in the works'.

Submission + - Doctor Who: what's in the Pandorica? (No spoilers) (wordpress.com)

Submitted by

Mirk

on Wednesday June 16, 2010 @09:03PM

Mirk writes: "Season Five of Doctor Who — the first season to feature Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor — is drawing to a close. Only the final two-part story remains to be shown, consisting of The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang. But what is inside the Pandorica? With only a few days left before the episode is broadcast, The Reinvigorated Programmer speculates, on the possibilities."

Submission + - New York's Rat Problem Goes Underground (wordpress.com)

Submitted by looncanada on Wednesday June 16, 2010 @08:57PM

looncanada writes: A new study by Purdue's rodentology expert and advisor to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirms that thousands of rats have infested the city's subway stations in search of garbage left by their human neighbours.

Submission + - Trouble With the New Mac OS X Snow Leopard Update (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett on Wednesday June 16, 2010 @08:50PM

itwbennett writes: The new Mac OS X Snow Leopard update fixes a number of security problems, but it also can introduce one. As Adobe's Wendy Poland pointed out: 'The update includes an earlier version of Adobe Flash Player, 10.0.45.2, than the newest one that's available from Adobe.com. While the Mac OS X v10.6.4 update does not appear to downgrade users who have already upgraded to Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe recommends users verify they are using the latest, most secure version of Flash Player (10.1.53.64).' And, as blogger Steven Vaughan-Nichols points out, 'Flash Player 10.0.45.2 is a real stinker of a Flash player with no fewer than 32 vulnerabilities.'

Submission + - A ballsy way to stop the oil leak (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit on Wednesday June 16, 2010 @07:02PM

sciencehabit writes: A maverick scientist who made a name for himself by directing the capping of the more than 500 hundred burning oil wells in Kuwait after the Gulf War in 1991 is proposing a deceptively simple way to plug the gulf oil leak: drop steel balls into the gushing well. If the steel balls are big enough in diameter, their weight will pull them downward even through the upward-rushing torrent of oil and gas. So they'll settle into the well at some deep level and begin to clog it. Two hundred tons of the things should slow the gusher enough that it can then be stopped with a more conventional injection of mud, he says.

Submission + - AOL dumps $1.2 billion worth of acquisitions (wsj.com)

Submitted by destinyland on Wednesday June 16, 2010 @06:58PM

destinyland writes: The social networking site Bebo is being sold for just "a small fraction of the $850 million AOL paid for the site two years ago," according to the Wall Street Journal. Since its acquisition, "the site has been shedding users as fast as Facebook and Twitter have been gaining them," according to one industry observer, quoting an April memo reportedly sent by an AOL executive arguing that Bebo "has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space." Bebo's traffic is already down 44% from last year, according to the Wall Street Journal, attracting just 5 million unique U.S. visitors in May (versus 130.4 million for Facebook). And earlier this month, AOL shed the instant messaging service ICQ for $187.5 — which it had acquired in 1998 for over $408 million.

Submission + - Best Practices for Smart Grid Privacy (ipc.on.ca)

Submitted by Mortimer.CA on Wednesday June 16, 2010 @06:39PM

Mortimer.CA writes: The Ontario Privacy Commissioner has released a report (in co-operation with some major utilities) detailing how to help ensure people's privacy is maintained when smart grids are rolled out (which they are being done now in many parts of Ontario, including Toronto, the largest city in Canada). From the Executive Summary (156 KB PDF): 1. Smart Grid systems should feature privacy principles in their overall project governance framework and proactively embed privacy requirements into their designs, in order to prevent privacy-invasive events from occurring; 2. Smart Grid systems must ensure that privacy is the default—the “no action required” mode of protecting one’s privacy—its presence is ensured; 3. Smart Grid systems must make privacy a core functionality in the design and architecture of Smart Grid systems and practices—an essential design feature; 4. Smart Grid systems must avoid any unnecessary trade-offs between privacy and legitimate objectives of Smart Grid projects; 5. Smart Grid systems must build in privacy end-to-end, throughout the entire life cycle of any personal information collected; 6. Smart Grid systems must be visible and transparent to consumers—engaging in accountable business practices—to ensure that new Smart Grid systems operate according to stated objectives; 7. Smart Grid systems must be designed with respect for consumer privacy, as a core foundational
requirement.

Submission + - WWW Inventor Pushes Linked Data in MIT Course (xconomy.com)

Submitted by ErMKutz on Wednesday June 16, 2010 @01:50PM

ErMKutz writes: WWW inventor Tim Berners-Lee is championing linked data---the idea of assigning Web addresses to individual pieces of data to enable more intelligent information searches---much like he did now-ubiquitous Internet standards such as HTML and HTTP. But the ethic hasn't quite taken off yet, so he and a group of Boston tech and entrepreneurial all-stars are launching an MIT class to teach students linked data mechanics and fast-track the technology to market. They're combining engineering and entrepreneurial education in the hopes of launching viable linked data businesses or open-source code at the conclusion of the course.

Submission + - Support Safe Open Computing for Kids (kiddix-computing.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 13, 2010 @10:04AM

An anonymous reader writes: The family-oriented Linux company, Kiddix Computing, is offering a one-week 'pay what you want' sale of their kid-friendly operating system! Through 6/15, support their initiative by purchasing a software download or donating a copy for others to enjoy. For every $10,000 raised, two Intel-powered Classmate PC's will be donated to one of several selected children's organizations. At the conclusion of this promotion they will be completely open sourcing the Kiddix operating system. Kiddix Computing is a software company based in Pittsburgh, PA. They specialize in the development of safe, fun, educational and easy-to-use software environments for children, and are are heavily focused on Linux and open source platforms.

Submission + - The Truth About the Polygraph According to the NSA (youtube.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 13, 2010 @09:58AM

An anonymous reader writes: The NSA (the secretive intelligence agency that brought you wholesale warrantless wiretapping) has produced a public relations video about its polygraph screening program titled "The Truth About the Polygraph." But is the NSA telling the truth? AntiPolygraph.org provides a critique (video).

Submission + - Help finding a good photo manager?

Submitted by JeremyDuffy on Sunday June 13, 2010 @07:36AM

JeremyDuffy writes: Ask Slashdot: I have an photo project of over 7000 photos. I want to tag them based on location, time of day, who's in them, etc. Doing this by hand one at a time through the Windows 7 interface in explorer is practically madness. There has to be a better way. Is there a photo manager that can easily group and manage file tags? And most importantly, something that stores the tag and other data (description etc) in the FILE not just a database? I don't care if the thing has a database, but the data MUST be in the file so when I upload the files to the Internet, the tags are in place.

Submission + - Flash on Windows Phone 7 devices? (reportech.net) 1

Submitted by TalTara on Saturday June 12, 2010 @04:09PM

TalTara writes: While Microsoft downplays the possibility of Flash on Windows Phone 7 devices, Adobe seems to support the Windows Phone 7 operating system with its new Flash 10.1 — "Target mobile operating systems for Flash Player include: Android, Microsoft Windows Phone 7" (Picture — http://bit.ly/bVxSsM). This could mean we will see the first WP7 devices with flash support, a thing maybe Microsoft wants to surprise us with?

Slashdot Top Deals